


Organic Variables

by COGNITO_ERGO_SUM (orphan_account)



Category: SOMA (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, F/F, F/M, Humor, Loss, M/M, Philosophy, Robots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-13 03:03:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7959910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/COGNITO_ERGO_SUM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on rachell-redacted’s human!WAU AU.</p><p>What if Dr. Johan Ross took a...different approach to the WAU project?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so this is my first multi-chapter fanfic. It's based on the tumblr of rachell-redacted: she made an AU in which the WAU is transferred to a human body. I would like to thank her for coming up with the idea for her AU; without it, this wouldn't exist.
> 
> This story is about the WAU's growth as he learns more about himself, what his purpose is, and why he was made.
> 
> Enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Johan Ross takes some time to think about recent events.

 

* * *

 

_Big things have small beginnings, sir._

_Mr. Dryden – Lawrence of Arabia_

 

* * *

 

Dr. Johan Ross sat in his quarters.

He could have been at his office in Site Alpha. Being there wouldn’t have meant interacting with Tau’s crew – Auclair, Coetzee, Glasser, Tsiolkovsky, Espinosa, Sendeyo, and Yoshida. But Ross’s personal computer, which contained all of his data on the various projects he was to work on, was at Tau. And right now, Dr. Ross needed some time to think about one of them.

Spare time had become somewhat of a commodity recently. Ever since January 12, the day the comet Telos had impacted and wiped out all life on the surface, Tau’s crew had been working around the clock to repair the LUMAR relay system. After five days of work, they had gotten communications back online, but it was still somewhat unreliable. Ross had corresponded with Dr. Julia Dahl at Omicron, and they had altered their plans accordingly.

As Carthage Industries was nonexistent apart from Ross, Dahl, and Mark Sarang, Theta’s Intelligence Analyst, the three operatives had decided to adjust their priorities. Firstly, they would have to ensure that the WAU, PATHOS-II’s resident AI and Ross’s primary project, was still operating as planned. Two days ago, Ross had gone out on an excursion under the pretense of examining the Tau-Phi cargo tunnel. However, Ross was really heading to Site Alpha to ensure the WAU’s core systems had not been damaged by Telos’ impact. But when he arrived, what he had found was even more unsettling.

Ross had noted several changes in the code for the WAU’s primary functions. These changes had gradually been made since 5:13 AM, January 12, 2103 – the exact moment Telos impacted. Systems analysis from Alpha also showed that the WAU had cut processing resources to several nonessential systems – entering a sort of low-power state, if you will.

All of this was the WAU working towards an end. But what end? What goal could this possibly accomplish?

Ross had been assigned to the WAU project as an AI psychologist. It was his job to predict exactly how the WAU ‘thought’, how it would carry out its core function – to ensure the safety of PATHOS-II’s staff.

Most disturbingly of all, Ross had noticed that the WAU had very few restrictions regarding what it could and could not do. There was no line not to be crossed, no definition about what qualified as ‘human’ or ‘pain’. For the WAU, keeping humans alive was all that mattered, even if they wished to die with every fiber of their being. As long as their hearts pumped blood, their lungs inhaled and exhaled oxygen, and their brains continued to function, it was good enough for the WAU.

If this continued unnoticed, Ross didn’t want to think about what would happen. This had to change. Unfortunately, there was no way to teach the WAU morals, or instill some sort of value system. No way to tell it what was right or what was wrong. The only people who might be able to do so died along with the rest of humanity. There was simply no way to modify the WAU to be able to account for more ‘organic’ variables. Hell, the only way you could do it was if you directly interfaced with…

Wait.

Inspiration suddenly struck Ross like a thunderbolt from on high. He pulled up some files on downloading programs to Cortex Chips. Next, Ross logged into PATHOS-II’s intranet. It was essentially PATHOS-II’s version of the Internet, except limited only to factual data. Ross searched ‘construction of humanoid robots’. What came up was a theoretical study centered around the concept of humanoid robots that could be run by advanced artificial intelligence constructs.

Finally, Ross grabbed his copy of _On the Capacity of Artificial Intelligences to Grow Intellectually_. He flipped to page 119.

_Although truly sentient artificial intelligences are still decades away from becoming a reality, it is not impossible that artificial intelligences, if given meaningful interaction with humans, may be able to evolve in such a manner so as to resemble human consciousness._

Ross took several sheaves of blueprint paper and began sketching out his newest project. Even though his idea was far-fetched, it could still be accomplished.

He would just need some help from Omicron.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's the end of the prologue. If you want to learn more about rachell-redacted's AU, visit her at http://rachell-redacted.tumblr.com.
> 
> Please leave kudos and/or comments!


	2. Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark Sarang receives an important email.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yegads.
> 
> I said this chapter would come out the weekend of September 16th, and it's now ONE BLOODY MONTH LATER. Real life reared its ugly head - school started back up, I got a new game (Alien: Isolation), my keyboard broke for reasons that definitely did not involve me spilling a drink on them, and then that monster known as writer's block attacked.
> 
> Fortunately, this gave me a lot of time to make sure everything in this chapter was great for you guys. You may have noticed that I added in a few new characters and relationships to the tags list to ensure the fic's content was more accurately represented.
> 
> Rachell-redacted, Ratdad, and anyone else who read/gave kudos/commented on Organic Variables, thank you for your support on this fic - I really appreciate it! Without your comments, Chapter 1 of Organic Variables probably wouldn't exist.
> 
> Well, enough jabbering from me. Enjoy!

 

* * *

 

_Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end._

_\- Seneca_  

 

* * *

 

_Every day. Every fucking day, that goddamn alarm goes off._

Mark Sarang slammed down an impatient fist on the blaring alarm clock next to his bed. Reluctantly, he climbed out of bed and shambled over to the communal bathrooms to take a shower. Although the water was warm, Sarang barely felt it against his skin.

After getting out of the shower, getting dressed, and brushing his teeth, Sarang headed to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. Like all other breakfasts at Theta, it tasted like the processed paste that it was – no amount of additives or preservatives could make the dehydrated Munchprint cubes bear any sort of resemblance to actual food. As he ate, Sarang talked with Peter Strasky and Robin Bass about what they were doing. It turned out that due to the nature of their jobs as Dispatcher and Field Service Technician, respectively, not much had changed. Strasky was still managing site-to-site communications, and Bass was still fixing things.

After breakfast, Sarang had gotten to work. Even though his job as an Intelligence Analyst was now useless, he was still in charge of monitoring the WAU’s systems. Although there were some minor discrepancies in its code, it was nothing to be worried about. Sarang then began his new, more important job: maintenance work. He got suited up and left Theta’s massive primary airlock to perform structural work. Alongside Field Service Technician Defreine, they had applied hull-strengthening compound to areas damaged by the Impact Event’s aftershock.

The Impact Event. That was what they were calling it now. The event that had wiped out 10 billion people in a millisecond. The event that had killed Mark’s two siblings and his fiancée, Kelly. Just another event for the history books. So cold and clinical a name for the death of a species.

After work, Sarang headed to his quarters. He looked at his last messages from Kelly, the status reports he had sent to Carthage HQ in London, and…

Interesting. It appeared that Ross had seen fit to send a message from Alpha. Professionally, Sarang knew him as Dr. Johan Ross, pioneer in the field of AI neural structuring and psychoanalysis. Personally, he barely knew the man; whenever they had met, Ross was always reserved and introverted.

Sarang opened the email.

 _From:_ [ _j_ross@pathosiiinternal.net_ ](mailto:j_ross@pathosii.net)

_To:_ [ _m_sarang@pathosiiinternal.net_ ](mailto:marksarang@pathos.net)

_Subject: Help required_

_Intel. Analyst Sarang,_

_Come to Site Alpha immediately. I require help regarding a project I am working on. Please bring the following:_

_8x UH Assembly Kit_  
_200 gallons of AGH_  
_200 gallons of Structure Gel_  
_3 sets of standard-issue lab equipment_  
_32x spare parts_  
_200 gallons of growth fluid..._

_Thank you for your assistance._

_Dr. Johan Ross_

_PS: Please inform Dr. Julia Dahl that she is to come as well._

As Sarang read the email, his curiosity grew with every new line. What project? Why were Dahl and him being summoned to Alpha? And why would Ross need lab equipment, Accelerated Growth Hormone, and growth fluid? Ross was an AI psychologist, not a biologist.

Either way, Ross was the senior operative on the WAU project. Regardless if Carthage Industries had three operatives or a million, rank still held firm.

As Sarang gathered his ID card and datapad, he looked at a photograph pinned to the wall of him, Dahl, and Ross. The photo had been taken at the Biotech and Money Assembly and Awards Gala Dinner in London; Dahl had somehow managed to drag Sarang and Ross there with her. Ross looked insecure as always, fiddling with his bowtie and staring uncomfortably at the camera. Dahl, on the other hand, had her arm around Sarang and was smirking confidently at the photographer. Her blue-gray eyes stared at the viewer with a catlike intensity, as if saying _Go ahead. Fuck with me. See what happens._

After gathering his belongings, Sarang then took the stairs down to the laboratory level. As he walked to the Security Checkpoint, he passed Dr. Matthew Frost, Theta’s Biomimetics Expert, who nodded politely to Sarang but did not speak. When Sarang entered Strohmeier’s office, he saw that Strohmeier was writing on a clipboard.

“Hey, Strohm.” Strohmeier looked up from his document. Everything about him was gray - gray eyes, gray hair, gray beard. Strohmeier was clearly exhausted from the sudden influx of work over the past several days, and it showed; he had bags under his eyes, and he had let his usually well-groomed stubble cover most of his lower face.

“What is it, Mark?” Strohmeier inquired impatiently. “I need clearance to head to Site Omicron,” Sarang explained.

Strohmeier’s brow furrowed. “No can do, Mark. We need all the personnel we can get right now, and you want to go to Omicron for god knows why? Not gonna happen.”

“This is important, I need to go into the abyss…”

Strohmeier laughed bitterly. “Jesus, Mark, do you want to get yourself killed? You want to divert time and resources to go on a wild goose chase at the bottom of the ocean?! Are you out of your fucking mind, you goddamn…”

“This is Priority Omega,” Sarang interrupted coldly.

At this, Strohmeier turned a shade of white usually reserved for corpses. Priority Omega was a message class reserved for emergencies only. The only people who could invoke Priority Omega messages were Overseer Fourqurean or Carthage Industries employees. “Who sent it?”

“Johan Ross.”

Even Strohmeier knew who Ross was; the man was practically a living legend. The look on Strohmeier’s face would have made Sarang laugh, if the situation wasn’t so serious. “Fine. I’ll authorize you. FourQ’s too busy dealing with the fried LUMAR situation, and Cronstedt’s organizing evacuations.”

Sarang breathed a sigh of relief.

“But by god, even though I’m authorizing this, under no circumstances does it mean I have to like it.”

Strohmeier transferred expedition clearance to Sarang’s datapad. As he turned to leave, Strohmeier spoke.

“Oh, and Mark?”

“Yes, sir?”

“You’re fucking insane, you know that?”

Sarang chuckled. “Yes, sir. Every day of my life.”

 

* * *

  

_“Welcome to PATHOS-II – your expressway to the stars.”_

Sarang paid little attention to the garbled mechanical announcement – he’d heard the prerecorded message dozens of times, traveling to Omicron to use the Climber to reach Alpha. As the shuttle tram sped along its magnetic tracks, Sarang thought about why Ross would need him and Dahl to head to Alpha. Himself he could understand, but Dahl was a Carthage security operative posing as a biochemist. There was really no reason why Ross would need her help.

Either way, Sarang would find out when he got to Alpha. As the tram pulled into Omicron’s shuttle station, Sarang could see a rangy, dark-skinned man crouching by a wall panel. He appeared to be performing diagnostics on the panel using a datapad, but immediately stopped when he heard the shuttle screeching to a halt. Sarang got out of the tram, making sure he took his datapad with him.

The man stood up. He had on a standard PATHOS-II jumpsuit with the name SORVARI emblazoned upon its breast. In his right hand, he held a datapad.

“Who the hell are you, shithead?” the man drawled, staring at Sarang if he had just crawled out a ventilation shaft. “Upsilon? Theta? Didn’t think you’d come all the way here to Omicron just to take a look around.”

Sarang struggled to hide his displeasure at the man’s lackadaisical demeanor. He didn’t even have an ID tag. Sarang presented the man with his ID card. “Mark Sarang, Theta Intelligence Analyst.”

The man stared at the tag for a few seconds. “Well, shit. Theta? Olavi Sorvari, Omicron Maintenance Engineer. You should probably come along, Eames’ll want to see you.”

Sarang followed Sorvari up the stairs to the third floor. Omicron was somewhat more messy compared to Theta, which always had an atmosphere of office-like sterility despite having twice the crew Omicron had. Sorvari took a turn into the crew quarters, into Chief Factor Claudia Eames’ bunk.

Eames looked up from a piece of paper she was examining. Her jaw was set in a hard line. A Harvard graduate, Eames rarely tolerated people less intelligent than her. “You can go now, Sorvari.”

Sorvari left the room, muttering about how his job didn’t pay nearly enough. “Sorry about Sorvari, he’s kind of an asshole. Sarang, right? What do you need?”

“I need permission to head into the abyss with Dr. Julia Dahl,” Sarang said casually, as though he was asking Eames if she wanted to grab a drink.

Eames leaned back in her chair. “Alright, I’ll arrange for you to…wait, you want to do _what?!_ Are you fucking kidding me?”

“With all due respect, Doctor, I do have clearance from Theta Security Operative Strohmeier,” Sarang stated calmly, showing his clearance on his datapad.

“I don’t care what clearance you have. I am not risking any of my staff going into the abyss,” retorted Eames.

Sarang sighed. “The request for me to head to the abyss was sent by Site Tau AI Psychologist Johan Ross.”

Eames stared at Sarang. “Dr. Johan Ross?”

“Yes,” Sarang said, his patience growing more finite by the second. “Now can you please give me and Dahl clearance?”

Eames looked at Sarang for several seconds before reluctantly replying. “Fine.”

 

* * *

 

The Climber was a dull gray metal cage attached to a platform by a cable strung with red lights. The cage was made of a nano-reinforced titanium alloy, making the chances of pressure damage practically zero. Four fins mounted to the side increased its hydrodynamicity going either up or down. Sarang and Dahl pushed the crates out to the Climber platform, struggling to compensate for the Power Suits’ motors.

_Two of Omicron’s engineers, Waldeck and Darby, were fitting Dahl and Sarang into Power Suits. The Power Suits were bulky and gray, resembling the armor of medieval knights of old. Each suit had a domed helmet not unlike the helmets of knights of old, with two high-intensity lamps strapped to the side. Composed of nanocomposite and titanium, the suits could withstand up to five kilometers of pressure. Dahl, not used to the suits’ confines, shifted in her harness._

_“Keep still,” advised Waldeck. “If you move, I can’t seal the suit properly.”_

_“Fine. Jesus,” snapped Dahl. “This damn thing is fucking itchy.”_

_Darby laughed. “Wait until you seal it up. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to the 40+ degrees Celsius temperature.”_

_Mentally, Dahl made a note to kill Darby if she got back._

_While Waldeck calibrated Dahl’s internal suit sensors to ensure the suit’s internal environment would be tolerable, Sarang thought about how unsurprised Dahl had been when he had told her of the task they had been assigned. She had simply stared at him and said the words, “Well, shit.” Then again, Dahl was a senior Carthage security operative, so getting unexpected surprises was part of the job._

_Eames was talking about how to operate the Climber. “As soon as you’re done with what you have to do, head back to the Climber station and plug in your Omnitool. Then, set the Climber to ascend with two passengers, pull the activation lever, and strap in. Helper Jane will take it from there.”_

_“Any tips for working the Power Suits?” said Dahl._

_“Don’t hold your breath, don’t stay out too long, and don’t dive too deep,” said Darby. “And try not to focus on the heat. Or the itchy bodysuit. Or the ocean ready to smash your skull to a pulp at any given mo…”_

_“I think we understand,” Sarang stated calmly, just as Dahl was about to start screaming at Darby._

“Why the hell isn’t this thing pressurized?” panted Dahl as she lowered a crate into the Climber.

Sarang took two tubes of Structure Gel and placed them onto the cage floor. “Pressure resistance.”

“What?”

“Pressure resistance,” repeated Sarang impatiently. “If the water pressure is the same inside as out, there’s less of a chance the Climber’ll implode. Besides, Haimatsu decided that adding life support systems and an airlock would be too costly.”

“Whatever,” said Dahl. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Sarang plugged in his Omnitool to the Climber control console. The small red handheld computer could operate almost anything on PATHOS-II it was hooked up to. After Sarang calibrated the Climber for descent with two people and the pair strapped in, Helper Jane announced, _“Climber descent initiated. Detaching from platform in three…two…one…”_ and the Climber began its journey into the abyss.

“So what’ve you been up to, Dahl?” Sarang said, trying to alleviate the tension.

Dahl was silent for a moment. “Not much. Helping with repairs. Cleaning up. Trying to get my mind off things.”

“I’m sorry,” Sarang said mournfully. “I know how you must feel…”

“My parents were up there,” whispered Dahl. “I joined Carthage to pay for their retirement plan. It doesn’t matter now.”

Sarang was taken aback by this. “Jesus, Dahl, I never knew…”

“Like I said, it doesn’t matter now,” Dahl said. “Now, can we please just be quiet?”

Sarang didn’t speak for the rest of the descent.

 

* * *

 

_“ALERT: Climber docking imminent.”_

“Looks like that’s our cue,” remarked Sarang. Dahl didn’t respond.

As the alarm blared, the Climber settled into its dock. Dahl and Sarang opened the Climber door and walked down the platform stairs.

The Climber station was dark; apparently, Tau’s crew hadn’t turned on the lights. The only source of illumination was the Climber cage exterior lights and the Power Suits’ headlamps. Sarang made his way to the nearby power relay and pulled the lever. Instantly, the Climber station’s lights came on, flooding the immediate area with light.

The Climber’s landing site was composed of a few shacks that served varying purposes; there was an operating cabin for logging arrivals and departures, a storage depot, and an oxygen refill station. Dahl and Sarang entered the storage depot and took a look at the map of the Omega sector, the area allocated for PATHOS-II abyssal operations.

“Okay, here’s the plan, Dahl,” said Sarang. “We follow the nav beacons until we get to Thermal Vent Station D. Then, we turn 45 degrees northeast and head that way until we get to Alpha. Got it?”

“Understood,” Dahl replied brusquely.

After removing the cargo from the Climber, Dahl and Sarang pushed forward into the abyss. The beacons served as a helpful marker; at every tenth light, the two stopped to catch their breath. Sarang wasn’t used to the heat of the Power Suit after so long being stationed at Theta, and evidently, neither was Dahl.

As the pair approached an observation outpost, the silt on the ocean floor began to stir. Slow at first, the sand began to move across the sea floor, gradually being thrown up in front of the two. Sarang could hear the billions of pounds of seawater stir through his helmet, ready to crush him into a viscous fluid at any second.

They picked up the pace. By the time they reached the canyon that marked the entrance to Alpha, the storm was forcing them to fight to stay standing. Sarang opened radio channels with Alpha.

“This is Sarang. Ross, are you there?”

There was no response.

“Ross, do you copy? Open the outer door.”

As Dahl and Sarang grew closer to Alpha’s entrance, Ross remained silent. Either he was trying to play a prank (in very poor taste), or he wasn’t at Alpha.

No. He couldn’t not be there. He was expecting them. Sarang had sent a message from Omicron telling him to be at the airlock in 2 hours. If he wasn’t there…

Eventually, the two reached Alpha’s primary airlock. Sarang mashed the OPEN button with his fist. “Ross, this isn’t funny. Let us in, Ross. ROSS!”

The radio was silent. The door stayed closed.

“Come on, this can’t be the only entrance,” Dahl reasoned calmly. “Let’s try the secondary airlock, there must be one of those.”

Sarang took a deep breath, then took another one. In. Out. In. Out. _Come on, Mark._ He could hear his panicked breathing inside the small helmet. _Focus._ “Alright.”

As Sarang and Dahl prepared to head to Alpha’s back entrance, the massive gears in the airlock door began to turn. The door’s securing latches opened with thunderous _clanks_. As the outer layer opened, the inner layer receded, alarms blaring loudly all the while. Sarang and Dahl quickly entered the airlock, with Sarang hurriedly swiping his Omnitool. The outer door closed, and the airlock began to cycle. Water receded from the confined space, drawing closer to the floor pumps with each passing second.

After what seemed like an eternity, the inner door’s latches unlocked, and the door to Alpha proper opened.

A man was standing at the doorway. Pale and skinny, he wore a pair of glasses and held a datapad in his right hand. His hair was gray from age and stress, and his standard-issue Alpha jumpsuit hung loosely around his frail body. It had been issued for someone much larger than he was, even before a minimalistic diet of processed food rendered the man even thinner.

Johan Ross spoke.

“Welcome to Alpha.”

 

* * *

  

Site Alpha was cold and gray. Ross, a neat freak to the point of obsession, made sure everything was filed, organized, and arranged immaculately. After Sarang and Dahl had doffed the Power Suits at the Dive Room lockers, Ross had begun to take them on a tour of Alpha.

“That over there’s the primary work area. It’s where I remotely monitor the WAU’s systems and analyze its outgoing data. And over there are the auxiliary server rooms,” Ross said with a hint of pride in his voice.

“Very nice,” remarked Sarang dryly. “But I don’t think you called us here just for a look around.”

Ross turned to face Sarang. “Astute as always, Sarang. Follow me to the CIL.”

Sarang and Dahl followed Ross to the hallway leading to the WAU Core Isolation Laboratory. “Tell me, Sarang, you’re an Intelligence Analyst. Have you noticed any…odd data from the WAU?” Ross inquired probingly.

Sarang thought back to the aberrant data he had noticed that morning. “Yeah. This morning. It’s just a few tweaks in the WAU’s priority functions. You called us down here because of that?”

“A few tweaks, yes,” said Ross as he walked along briskly. “It was just a shift in priority for climate control integrity checks. But what happens when the WAU starts redefining its protocol?”

Sarang’s face blanched. What Ross was saying…it would not only affect PATHOS-II’s staff, but what was left of humanity as well. “What are you suggesting?”

“Walking corpses. Things that aren’t even human anymore. Life support, whether we like or not. Think _The Matrix_ , but much, much worse. And that’s not even getting into the Pilot Seat situation.”

“Pilot Seats?” inquired Dahl.

“According to the blueprints, there are EM drums in the Pilot Seats that could easily capture a non-static brain scan. It would be easy from there to download the scan into a UH,” explained Ross. “So unless we want a bunch of delusional robots wandering around PATHOS-II thinking they’re human, I suggest we do something about it.”

“What are you proposing, Ross?” asked Dahl apprehensively.

A hint of a smile was detectable on Ross’s thin face. “You’ll see.”

The three arrived at the door to the Core Isolation Laboratory. Ross inserted his keycard, unlocking the airlock used to ensure no contamination entered the sterile chamber. The three then donned clean suits, masks, and goggles before stepping into the WAU's inner sanctum.

“Ross…” said Sarang, voice tinged with fear. “What is this?”

The WAU’s core was usually an opaque sphere, filled with liquid ammonia so as to prevent the delicate components inside from overheating. But the sphere was now transparent, with tubes and cables protruding from the sphere’s exterior. In a far corner, another sphere sat, connected by wires to Alpha’s myriad systems. This one obviously contained the WAU’s central operating systems; Ross must have removed the core systems, inserted them into a spare sphere, and manually hooked it up to PATHOS-II. The only question was, why?

“This is my plan,” Ross proclaimed proudly. “We’re going to grow an artificial human and download the WAU’s core functions into it. Once we do that, we’ll be able to make sure that humanity doesn’t become a species of emaciated monsters or talking robots. Any questions?”

Sarang and Dahl stared at Ross, gawking.

“Ross,” said Dahl slowly. “ _Are you out of your fucking mind?!_ ”

Ross recoiled instinctively. “I’m sorry?”

“You want to download the WAU into an android body,” stated Sarang flatly. “You aren’t joking?”

“Dead serious,” said Ross. “Why would I joke about this?”

“Serious or not, do you really think this is going to work?” demanded Dahl. “No one has ever created an artificial human, let alone downloaded an AI into it. Besides, how the hell are we supposed to get the WAU to cooperate with us? It’s an AI, purely driven by algorithms. You really think it’ll listen to us?”

“That’s why I called you here,” said Ross. “Dahl, you’re a biochemistry expert. You’ll be able to help construct the outer shell. Sarang, you can figure out how to download the WAU into the body. You’re an Intelligence Analyst, you know more about AIs than anyone else on the planet. Besides, someone has to help me work with the WAU, I’m rubbish with people.”

Sarang laughed, although there was no real mirth behind it. “You’re crazy, Ross. You’ve fucking cracked."

Sarang turned to walk out of the room. Ross ran over to him. “Mark…”

“Did you actually think we were going to go along with this, Ross?” stated Sarang. “I’m heading back to Theta. And I’m getting a stiff drink when I get there.”

“Sarang, please, wait–” Ross grabbed Sarang’s shoulder.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t punch you in the face and leave right now,” said Sarang, not bothering to turn around. His voice held no pity for Ross.

“Because you came here.”

Sarang was silent for a few seconds before speaking softly. “What?”

“Remember when we first met, Mark? At the orientation for new Carthage employees?” Ross asked, voice trembling. “You instantly asked me if I wanted to get a drink afterwards. You didn’t even care who I was.”

Sarang didn’t respond.

“You came down to Alpha, Sarang,” pleaded Ross. “You wouldn’t have come if you didn’t think it was important. Please, I can’t do this without you.”

“Why?” whispered Sarang. “Everyone we know is dead, and we’re just waiting for our turn now. What difference does this make?”

“It doesn’t,” said Ross, resigned to whatever Sarang might do. “But it’s the only thing we can do. So if you leave me right now, I won’t blame you.”

Sarang thought about what Ross had just said. _It’s the only thing we can do._

Mankind was always a survivor. From the minute the first Cro-Magnon had started a fire, they had always managed to find a way to keep on living, to keep pushing forward. Maybe this was the next step for humanity; maybe it always was supposed to be.

If Sarang gave up, he would be spitting in the face of the deaths of ten billion people, Kelly included. She had always told him, _Never give up. Even when the world is crumbling apart around you, you get up and you keep moving, because you, Mark Sarang, are a survivor._

 _Was this what you wanted, Kelly?_ thought Sarang. Probably not. But if he didn’t keep going, it would mean that she had died in vain.

_Goddammit._

“Alright,” said Sarang resignedly. “I don’t like this, but I’m in.”

Sarang leaned closer to Ross. “But if something goes wrong, it’s not my problem. You brought us down here, and if you fuck up, you’re cleaning up. Am I clear?”

Ross nodded, almost imperceptibly. “Crystal.”

“Dahl, what do you think?” asked Sarang. Throughout Sarang and Ross’s conversation, she had remained silent. Now, she spoke.

“…You realize you’re insane, Ross?”

For the first time Dahl had ever seen, Ross laughed. “Every day of my life, Dahl.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of Chapter 1. If you liked it, please leave kudos and/or comments!
> 
> Don't expect Chapter 2 to come anytime soon - real life is busy, and while I love writing fanfic, I do have other priorities.
> 
> Check out Ratdad and Rachell-redacted at their tumblrs (Jojocujoh.tumblr.com and rachell-redacted.tumblr.com, respectively).
> 
> Have a nice day!


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